There was no irony in the juxtaposition of the grandeur that surrounded the State’s goodbye to a great man around midday today and our little baseball game to be played in Georgia a few hours later. The latter perfectly exemplifies the former as we should all know and we were particularly heartened to find out just how much he loved the game himself. Vale.

And so we must resume our critical and laudatory faculties while there is still some point to them. These are random. A coincidence then that the two errors that cost us last night’s game were perpetrated by the same two guys who looked worse at the plate in general and specifically, at crucial at bats, failed us? We have been carrying both for some time, they are hurting us, most every night. One non-Marlins HR since July 1 as we enter September? July? Ozzie is sadder, he’s so much younger. he manifests his pain. To go from so good to so bad so quickly must feel awful.

Acuna/Ender/Camargo/FloSuki/Swanson – these guys can hit from time to time, impressively – pour encourager les autres, hopefully. We are in their debt.

Enough already, before you all disappear, let’s do tonight’s game with a totally open mind, promise. Just found out that we are adding three pitchers for September – Touki/Bryse/ Mr. Kyle Wright. It is believed two of them can actually hit which is the best news of the week. But where is Riley?

10.08pm…STAND BY https://youtu.be/EadIvDAWkf8

Well, ask and you shall receive. We all asked. In fact we’ve been asking for a week or more. Down 2, then 3, late, Dansby leads off the 5th with a homer. In the all important 8th Duda pinch hits a lead off double to the far right corner, Lane Adams pinch runs and moves to third on Acuna’s line drive out to right field. Ender’s strike out was muffed by Cervelli far away enough for Ender to get to first but, more importantly, Lane Adams rushed in to score. We were behind no more.

Freddie, bless him, after another awful night , served a pitch beautifully over the off side infield . Nick moved him to third. Camargo lashed a line drive which was caught by the RF for the first out. Freddie did not hesitate and rushed in to score the go ahead run. Dansby somehow appeared from somewhere to score the 5th run, the fourth of the inning. All this damage was to Kela who had been untouchable the night before. It was all a little overwhelming after the arid, repetitive, narrow losses of the preceding week.

AJ did not mess about, got them 1/2/3 albeit helped by 2 plays by the impeccable Camargo. I don’t know what we are going to do with Riley but he ain’t playing there, ever. Lane Adams is still shredding his fingernails. Lucas Duda appeared on cue looking like a ruddy faced, happy farmer polishing an apple. Charlie was so happy, dreadful error.

So that’s how you stop a horror show guys. Write half your recap ahead of the game and entertain nothing but a win. I told you so. Love saying that.

@4. Next year we will see Mr Riley for sure. Probably he will be called up at around the same time Acuna called up this year. The way Snit manages things I am sure there will be enough at bats for him without actually needing to officially bench anyone.

Hey, hope you got to see all that! Happy ending for a much needed change. Swanson’s role was understated, he has become a rock for us, i was so wrong. Used to say, int al, he couldn’t make a decent tag under pressure, So this week we got an out when he literally swept a runner off second who had beaten him comfortably to the bag. And again last night there was a tense play at second which he won. A bientot, mon ami. Keep those middle of our night posts coming.

@ coop… hope you are well…howd’ya feel now about Dansby, he got it all started last night, didn’t he?

Ok, can we then all agree that this is all about Riley’s service time and nothing else? We’ve been moving people up and down for weeks , making the necessary adjustments re 25/40 man totals. We have pitching coming out the wazoo yet middle of the offense hitting that has been shown to be horribly vulnerable. We have a worn out Neck in right field he will eventually replace next year who could sure use a rest right now.

We’re in a tense stretch run, his bat would make everything that little more solid.
Isn’t that worthy of bringing him up? Don’t understand.

I just don’t think Riley is ready. His K rate scares me. I don’t see how he is better than Johan and Dansby at this moment, and I don’t want to use August and September to find out when we are in the thick of the race.

So the difference of opinion is whether he is ready or not. Personally I think he needs couple more months in AAA before it’s worth the chance of giving him a try. The braves are probably thinking similarly judging from their actions.

With all the pining for Riley, he has 12 homeruns and an 826 ops at Gwinnett. This is pretty good but with a little bit of decline going to the majors this year, I hardly see him as a difference maker. As noted, the strikeouts are concerning. He needs more time.

Starter hasn’t been announced for tomorrow’s game. Touki may go from starting against the Marlins to the Red Sox. He started on the 28th so he’d be in line. Wilson and Wright have since worked in relief.

I would think Riley, Dansby, or Camargo gets traded. Camargo will be a 3+ WAR player by season end, so he would end up being a big part of a trade should they go that route. I doubt Riley plays the outfield. I’d think they’ll spend some money out there.

You may be right. It’s hard to see them slotting in yet another rookie into a starting everyday position. Especially given that a full year of Camargo might be 4+ WAR. If they trade Inciarte then Riley might factor into LF. Otherwise yeah, he gone.

@6 blazon, great recap. Just arrived in the US and heading to Atlanta tomorrow for two games against the Red Sox. Can’t wait. Should be exciting.

And you’re right on. Dansby has shown what we all had hoped for him the past ten days or so. Great to see him come through like that. Also, he’s still only 24. We tend to forget that with all the Acunas and Ozzie’s.

Riley is and will be better than Camargo. Period. His minors stats exceed anything Donaldson or Suarez ever did at a few years younger. You guys are only fixed on what you see in front of your faces. Riley is 21 yo. He is the third best 3B prospect in all of baseball right behind Vlad Jr and Senzel. Camargo has the potential to be another Ben Zobrist – one of the best Super UTIL in all of baseball.

I guarantee that Riley will eventually be starting at 3rd and regularly hitting 30 HRs per year. His recent stat line for the last month is far better than you guys are giving him credit for. He should have been called up and installed at 3B to see what kind of boost he can give the offense for the rest of the year. If it was anything like what Dansby did two years ago it will be a blessing.

I agree, though, at this point, it looks like they’re trying to play service time games with Riley and he may follow Acuna’s trajectory next year.

What’s odd is that with 8 or 9 legitimate SPs, why are they not playing the same service time games with Wright? I’m guessing he will be at AAA longer next year than Riley to get to the same place. They seem to be committing to Touki now so I expect next year’s beginning rotation to be Folty, Newk, Gaus, Soroka, and Touki. Wilson and Wright and Allard will be held down until service time considerations are eliminated. Of course, Touki is also the only one eligible for Rule 5, too. Teheran and maybe 2 of Allard/Wilson/Gohara will likely be traded in a blockbuster.

Camargo is putting up an 800+ OPS *right now*, while playing better defense than Riley will ever play. Riley has nowhere to play. Should they call him up to give him 10 MLB at bats? His value is higher if we don’t start his clock.

Will Riley be better than Camargo 3 years from now? I dunno, it’s quite possible. But all that matters is the present.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there a Sunday game against the Nationals in D.C. a few years ago with a 5:00 PM start time, and the Braves announcers (Simpson) sat around complaining about how crappy it was of the Nationals to have a 5:00 PM start time, that it was the latest start time allowed by MLB for day games on getaway day or whatever? Will they be complaining about the chosen start time in Atlanta today?

It’s obvious the Braves think a lot of Kyle Wright. We already had a roster crunch and he didn’t have to be added. The Braves already had a surplus of starters to call up who already were on the 40 man roster.

Six good innings for Teheran. That’s the height of the expectations I have for him.

I’m not saying it’s anything more than barely possible, but I would think someone like Adams or Tucker or — gasp — Flaherty could hit their way onto the postseason roster even at this point and Duda and/or Duvall could hit their way off. Like I said, I think only Flowzuki and Charlie are locks. We may not even have the same roster from hypothetical round to round.

I may be in the minority, but with the collective lack of success by Fried, Gohara, Wisler, Sims, and Parsons out of the pen, I have some concern about throwing Wilson or Wright into high leverage situations out of the pen. They are a cut above most of those previously mentioned guys, though.

Jose Ramirez — the one that’s having a 8.0 fWAR season and used to play 3B for the Indians — is being moved to 2B and Kipnis is being moved to the outfield to accommodate Josh Donaldson. I thought I was talking a little crazy saying that they should move some of our guys around for him. That’s… bold.

I guess my pinch-hit preference in order of leverage but dependent on match-up would be Culberson->Duda->Flowzuki which could change very quickly. I’m not sure why Duvall is so high up the pecking order.

It’s sure hard to complain about our pitching. Every batter is a high leverage situation the way we’re hitting.

The weekend went almost the way I hoped it would – the only difference being the loss to the Cubs. A few days ago, I said I’d be happy with a split with the Rays, a win over the Cubs, and take 2 of 3 from the Pirates.

It’s good to have that 4 game lead because the Phils have a lot of games against the Mets and Marlins. A lot.

If you let Teheran eat innings the first few months and stick with the plan to provide an extra day of rest whenever possible, you're less likely to end up in a position where you may need to limit the younger arms down the stretch